Silver Dreams
by Captain Tungsten
Summary: Naruto has the resposibility to complete a family legacy. Thanks to the Kyuubi, he may just be capable of doing so. Will the world be ready for the result?
1. A Mother's Legacy

**Prologue, a Mother's Legacy**

A young, heavily pierced woman sat in a hospital bed. A small parcel of clean linens in her arms was open enough to make out new pink flesh and a hint of blonde hair. The baby slept peacefully, the mother paying it little attention. Her gaze was focused on the man in front of her.

The man was standing at the foot of the bed. Taller than average and sturdily built, he wore a long white coat and wring the rim of an oddly shaped hat between his fingers. He had just finished pleading his case. His eyes were filled with sorrow, but his stance was unapologetic. He met her eyes steadily and waited for a response.

She considered her options, and realised there were none. He had phrased the situation as a request. If she declined he would phrase it as an order. If she refused that he would take what he wanted by force. Or else he would simply wait for her to die rendering the whole situation academic. She made her choice.

"Give me a few minutes...alone with him." The Hokage nodded and left the room silently. Alone but for her child, the woman considered her situation.

Her parents were dead, she felt sure. She had yet to see their corpses - if any yet remained - but they had been on the front lines and there were no reported survivors from the front lines.

Her lover was dead. That she was sure off. He had been beside her as the evil chakra flayed his flesh from his bones, leaving nothing behind but a charred corpse.

She was dying, she knew. Eight and a half months pregnant meant she wouldn't ordinarily have been in battle, but the family compound was on the outskirts of Konoha, and when the beast had attacked, it was either die fighting or die running. She had fought and ran, aided by her lover and had even managed to lose the beasts interest after the ninja rebanded to attack its left flank, but the same attack that had slaughtered the father of her child had killed her too. It was just being a little slow about it.

The beast's chakra was evil and venomous. It had invaded her system, infecting her chakra and body down to the bones. Within an hour of escaping immediate death, she knew her eventual fate. Still, she had managed to save her child.

She looked at her child, trying to recognise something of herself in him, or perhaps something of his father, but found herself unable to do so. She had carried him for nearly nine months, and knew she was supposed to be feeling something for him, more than she did. She didn't hate him, or blame him for this turn of events or anything, but still found it hard to muster any real attachment to someone she had only known - face-to-face so to speak - for less than a day.

She felt a little ashamed at her thoughts, knowing deep down that if there was anyway she could have transferred the Kyuubi's poison to her son and saved herself, she would have done so in instants. As it was, there was no such decision to make. The poison had fully infiltrated her system. Her death was inevitable, but she could take her child with her or save his life. Given that choice it was easy. She gathered as much of the venom to herself as possible and had a medi-nin induce labour, eventually opting for a caesarean to speed the process along.

And now here she sat, dying of a demons poison with a scar down her belly and a new born son who would soon be taken from her for reasons she didn't even want to think of, and her thoughts ran to her legacy. Her families legacy to be more precise, but with her parents dead, she was the only one remaining to pass the torch. She allowed herself a moment to grieve for her parents before shaking it off, reminding herself she would join them soon enough. She hoped their Silver was near enough the Source to be reclaimed when they died.

She looked at her son, and then at a slender ring she held in one hand. It was to be his Silver - her father's contribution to the new life. Circumstances dictated plans had to be changed. She knew that bound Silver could be merged under the right circumstances having seen her grandmother give the last of hers to her mother when she was small, but never expected to do it herself. The only person she might have considered it for was her lover, but that was impossible anyway as he wasn't a member of the clan.

She laid the ring on her left palm, and held her right hand out palm up as well. She closed her eyes and began to visualise. Slowly, then with more speed, her piercings and jewellery began to move, vibrating softly and extending thin tendrils out to probe the air around them. As tendrils met, they melted together and grew, until finally all that remained was a large orb hovering above her palm, connected by a thin strand to a slender bracelet.

Her lips moved silently as she concentrated, and the orb spread out, until it was a large lump connected to a thin sheet. Shining lines ran across the surface of the sheet, forming words and figures. When the sheet was full, it folded over and the lump spread out more. Soon enough the last remnants of the orb turned into a pair of covers containing a slender booklet of shining Silver.

Her left hand closed suddenly, and opened. Her nails had pierced her palm and blood ran freely over the ring there. Shortly, the blood flow changed, forming symbols and seals on the surface of the ring. When they were complete she held the completed book over to the ring and touched them. There were sparks where they met, and then suddenly the book seemed to flow, the corner of it melding with the ring. Before any more could meld, she focused her chakra, making the seals glow and the book disappear in a puff of smoke, sealed into the ring.

She sat back heavily, feeling the effects of her actions. It had been years since she had to make do with a little - let alone no Silver whatsoever - in contact with her in some way. Still, it wouldn't matter soon enough. She had effectively just given away her life, what little she had left. She would have to rush with the final part.

She looked down at the child, still sleeping in her arms and shifted him in her grip to get better access to his head. She moved carefully with shaking hands to set the open ends of the earring on either sides of his left lobe. When she was satisfied it was in place, she touched it lightly with her mind, making the ends shoot together, piercing her child's ear and merging seamlessly with one another. The sharp stab of pain that accompanied this was more than enough to wake the child. She ignored his wails as she prodded the ring again, further agitating the sore ear. The ring seemed to melt, becoming a stream of liquid Silver, flowing counter to gravity and disappearing into the small hole in the child's earlobe.

When she was satisfied that only a small hole remained as evidence of her actions, she allowed herself to relax, falling quickly into a deep and eternal slumber.

After a few more minutes, the Hokage peered round the door to see a wailing child in the arms of an unresponsive woman, now mysteriously without piercings. He took her pulse and nodded sadly, before turning his attention to the child. He fingered the new hole in the boy's ear with some suspicion, but no real surprise and nodded. He lifted the child out of the woman's grip and left the room. He looked around for a nurse to convey the news to but found no one, and walked away.

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Sarutobi prowled the ritual room of the Hokage tower. He had just witnessed his heir summon a Death God from atop his amphibian mount. The Death god had easily defeated the rampaging beast before turning to its summoner. The blonde man had merely nodded before collapsing. Gamabunta had lowered him to the ground before disappearing in a puff of smoke. The death god had faded from sight soon enough, but the Third Hokage's keen chakra senses had found something amiss heading towards the tower, and so had headed there himself.

Sarutobi had dispatched a scout to see to the Yondaime, but had no doubt about what news he would receive. He knew of the technique his successor had used, which was why he had headed straight to this room. His gamble paid off as a young voice rose in a wail from the altar at the centre of the room.

After checking to see that there were no traps for the unwary in the seals laid out all across the room, he moved to the altar, face showing no surprise at what he found there. He lowered a hand to trace the elaborate seal on the child's stomach, and startled slightly as the boy silenced at his touch. Looking into clear blue eyes opening for the first time, he felt a stab of pity for the boy.

He sighed and reached down for the child. Lifting him and examining him for defects, he noticed a spot of dried blood on one earlobe. He wiped it away with a thumb, revealing unmarked skin beneath it.

"Arashi must have been in a rush to have been this sloppy with his seals. How'd he manage to get blood up there?" The elderly man sighed. Konoha was down one Hokage, and he had no doubts about who would be called in to fill the post. He looked at the child again, now sleeping from the day's exertions. "It won't be easy for you...You need a name, don't you..." He traced the seal around the child's navel once more. "Uzumaki Naruto, how's that? Given the effect you're going to have on people, it seems to fit."

Oblivious to all, the last Silver Claimer slept on.


	2. Ginyousei

**Chapter 1, Ginyousei**

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Naruto ran his eye over the spidery script on the page. Whoever had written this had obviously not had six year olds in mind as potential readers. He sighed, and focused harder, trying to make sense of it all.

As a six year old, he would be starting at the academy soon, and it _had_ been a good idea to ask Hokage-jiisan for something to help give him a leg up, but the scroll he'd been assigned - for all that it was apparently the definitive work on basic ninjutsu and chakra realisation - was a huge challenge just to read, let alone actually use what it taught.

He scanned the page one last time and nodded, firmly. He thought he had a pretty good idea of what it meant by now. He hoped he did, anyway. He'd been at it for hours already and his eyes and brain were punishing him for the strain. He dropped the scroll and leapt to his feet. Fingers flew into a now familiar seal and feet slid to a shoulderwidth distance from one another. Lesser works would praise the virtues of various stances as means to awaken chakra for the first time. This one claimed that the key was to be comfortable while maintaining awareness of the belly - the _Dan Tien_ where chakra energies gathered.

Breathing deeply and from his gut he let his mind sink into a well-practised pattern, growing quieter as he focused everything on success. For the longest time he was convinced - in the part of his mind that he used to catalogue his actions, separate from his intense focus - that this would just be another failure like so many times before. His morose thoughts were interrupted as he felt something on the edge of perception, like a light shining in the corner of his eye, a spoken word, loud enough to hear but too quiet to tell what was said.

He waited with baited breath as the feeling seemed to pulse throughout that periphery before, softly, slowly but unmissably growing larger. It took a long time - minutes, hours or maybe it was just seconds - but eventually the feeling surrounded him completely, flowing through him and over him, letting him be aware of t with his whole mind rather than just with the outskirts. It was beautiful, glorious, fantas---.

A sharp pain shot through his ear, and it was gone as though never there. His chakra - he knew that's what it was - was as far from him as it had ever been. He almost wept.

Finally pulling himself together, reminding himself that if he did it once he could do it again, he lifted his hand to his earlobe to see what had caused him pain. Running his fingers across the lobe, he was stunned to find cool metal rather than flesh. Quickly he turned and ran to his bathroom, where a cracked mirror would give him a better view of his ear.

Looking closely at his reflection, he was shocked to find a simple silver ring embedded in the flesh of his earlobe. Certainly, he'd never been pierced and he had no idea where the ring had come from. As he looked closer, he noticed patterns moving under the surface of the silver. As he watched, the patterns decayed, and the now plain ring seemed to shudder and vibrate.

As the vibrations, increased, the ring seemed almost to become like a liquid. A single tendril dripped down from it as he watched, too shocked to do anything. The tendril thinned into an incredibly fine wire then began to move quickly, describing a roughly rectangular shape in the air.

As more and more silver poured from the ring in his ear - far more than it volume could hope to hold - the wire wove a box-like shape. The entire process took less than a minute, and when the wire disconnected finally from the ring in his ear, the box - no, the _book_ that had been created dropped from where it had been suspended in the air.

Naruto caught the book before it could hit the ground, and after a moments wait to make sure nothing else bizarre was going to happen, returned to the kitchen where there was better light to read by.

He turned the book over a few times, looking for clues into its existence, before stopping and focusing on the front cover. Unlike his other scroll, this was clear and easy to read. He spoke the words softly out loud as he read.

"The Legacy of the Ginyousei Clan, by Ginyousei Haruka, for my son."

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A year later, Naruto was bent over a much different book under the bright electric lights of an underground cavern. The cavern was situated under where the Ginyousei clan compound had once been on the outskirts of Konoha. It had been abandoned after the Kyuubi attack, and still technically belonged to the clan. He'd have trouble proving his heritage if it came to an argument, but until the issue was forced, he was content to use the compound - and the caverns underneath it - in secret.

This particular cavern was the most important, as it was the source and repository for the mystical Silver that gave the clan their powers.

The book he'd found sealed in his earring a year ago had answered a lot of questions and raised even more. If he'd been expecting a flowery letter full of apologies from his mother for not being there and proclamations of motherly love and wishes of good fortune for his future he was sorely disappointed. He understood, though. His mother had known him for only instants before he was removed to be used in the sealing of the Kyuubi. Apparently members of his clan were either calm and metholodical or wildly passionate. His mother fit into the first category, and he knew that the few minutes they had had together were simply not enough for any real bond to form.

Accordingly, her message - in the form of the book - had been about his duties as a Ginyousei clan member. The legacy he had to continue at any cost. And so here he was - poring over the last of the collected research of generations of Ginyousei.

They had discovered the Silver over a millennia ago, and on discovering the bizarre and improbable powers of the strange metal, his progenitors had come up with a bold, equally bizarre plan.

The metal was a perfect medium for those energies associated with life and sentient thought, mostly in the form of Chakra. For someone who possessed an affinity towards it, the Silver could channel and contain chakra far better than any other medium, with the possible exception of blood, and then only in rare cases.

Surely then, with the right technique, the transition could be made entirely. From a weak fleshy body the indomitable soul could be extracted and forged into a body of Shining Silver, fluid and eternal as nothing else could be.

The Silverclaimer techniques that Konoha prized so much had come about in the manner of a bluff. They knew how hard keeping something like the Silver a secret would be, so they didn't. But the truth they let everyone else know wasn't the whole truth. By letting everyone believe a lesser truth, they cut off further inquiry into the greater secrets of their clan. It had even become part of their name - Ginyousei meant silver claimer, but written differently it could also mean silver larva. It had become a joke on the rest of the world; that no one else suspected their ultimate goal was to evolve beyond their current selves.

Of course it wasn't that easy in practice. The earliest attempts had ended with people driven mad, as only half their soul was transferred successfully, or dead as the soul appeared to make the transition, without any results - leaving only inanimate metal and a stiff corpse behind.

Over the generations, they had refined their techniques, researched countless possibilities all ending in failure. As their research revealed to them more and more of what they believed the metal body would be able to do their desire to make the transition only increased. Every generation, a few more would be lost to the Silver. His own mother, having fulfilled her duty to the clan by bearing a child had intended to make her own attempt within a few years. Kyuubi's attack had changed that.

And now it was up to him: The last Silver Claimer. The last of the Ginyousei. He knew his own flaws - knew that he could never wait to grow up and have children before attempting it. Life was, if not unbearable, then nearly so for a Jinchuuriki in Konoha. Even if he had never discovered his heritage, it had only been a matter of time before he sought another route of escape.

His mother's book had led him to this cavern, which also contained the entire library of research done on the Silver. It had also taught him the Jutsu _Kage Bunshin_. The ability to make shadow clones was an odd one, and it tended to have some weird affects on the Silver, but it was invaluable for a researcher.

Using shadow clones he had scoured the library, reading all his ancestors theories and investigating the seals and arrays that had been used to no effect over the years. He had read and reread and researched on his own through public libraries and other resources, until he understood everything he had read, and could recreate it and try to improve upon it.

He had eventually settled on an array similar to those used by the earliest of his ancestors, with some modifications by his mother. He had further modified it based on his unique chakra signature and physiology - one possible reason for his ancestors failures is that without some link to his body energy, even if they did make the transition, they would have no way to influence their new body. It was a long shot, but it might make the difference, and so he had arranged for his old body to be consumed in the reaction, transferring all its energy to his new one.

One way or another, there was no turning back.

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Naruto eyed the Silver nervously, then steadied himself and began. He stripped off everything he was wearing but his jewellery - an earring, three studs across his left eyebrow and a heavy bangle on one wrist - and stepped into the Silver.

The Silver was present in a large pool set into the floor of the cavern, four feet wide and deep enough to stand in and have the Silver reach his neck. Right now he was standing on top of the Silver, it supporting his weight easily, but when he reached the centre of the pool he began to sink into it. Before he could sink entirely, a look of concentration crossed his face and the studs on his face fell off, as well as the bangle on his wrist - that reverting to book shape before meeting the Silver.

They met the Silver and merged flawlessly, and it was with only the single ring in his ear - the one bonded to him first, so many years ago - that his feet met the rock beneath the Silver.

It was an incredible feeling. Surrounding him was every scrap of Silver that had been found or refined or synthesised since the clan had begun over a millennia ago. He could feel the faint imprints of the warriors who had used the Silver, long ago. After their deaths it would have been reclaimed and added to the reservoir.

It was encouraging - a thousand years of family history was watching him and wishing him well, willing him success. He vowed to do them proud. He looked over the seals once again, spread across the rock floor beside the pool, and even extending some way over the surface of the Silver. He checked that everything was correct, taking special care over the array that described himself in the reaction, and nodded. He was ready to begin.

Naruto focused his chakra, letting it spill out of his body in gentle waves, making the Silver buckle and dance around him. When the Silver was vibrating with a constant gentle him, he bit his lip, letting the blood from the wound spill out into the Silver. The result was instantaneous.

He had just time to see the seals bursting into light before the pool of Silver rose up and closed over his head, pulling him down and holding him still. He realised later that he assumed the foetal position as the Silver supported him in the centre of the pool. Compelled by the situation he breathed deeply, drawing Silver down into his lungs in a move he knew could be fatal. _Should_ be fatal.

There was pain, not unexpectedly as his body was compressed under the weight of the liquid metal and his mind was read and copied and transferred to its new vessel. There was pain too, as his body ignited - its energies being stripped and guided into a new form. There was pain as the final memories and thought patterns were transferred and one of him - the copy, the original, he didn't know which - was snuffed from existence altogether.

Then there was nothing.

Then there was consciousness, and Naruto_ ('Who is Naruto? - __**I**__ am Naruto!')_ knew instantly and precisely why none of the others _(Others? What Others?)_ had succeeded.

It was the chakra cost. The initial transfer wasn't so bad, but after...

Just existing in this metal shell was draining Chakra from him - no, from the Fox, now - faster than anything he had experienced before. He knew what it was though, and bent his will to the problem. Bit by bit the drain became less and less, until finally and with the last dregs of his energy, Naruto managed to beat back the drain into something like the drain of maintaining a human body.

It was something all Ginyousei members dealt with initially. The Silver could be a good medium for chakra, but it had to be tuned first. At first, using the Silver came with a massive chakra cost. Over time, you could alter the properties of the Silver - attune it more and more towards yourself - until it became decently efficient to use. And it couldn't be pre-tuned. What worked for someone would not work for anyone else.

All those members before him probably had not even time to get a grip on their new body before their chakra ran out, severing the last link between soul and metal body, killing them. This Silver body had no celestial gates to regulate the flow of chakra like a human body, if you kept using chakra, eventually you would run out.

Naruto had been luck in that he had the Fox. Using the Kyuubi as a vast source of energy he was able to buy himself enough time to tune the metal. Transferring his body energy over as well let him get a grip on his body faster too, which had helped.

Examining his chakra reserves, he was gratified to see them returning, although he was initially shocked not to find the Kyuubi. Eventually he did find the fox, although it was a pale shadow of its former glory. The fox regenerated about as fast as he did, but its reserves were impossibly more massive. It would take months or even years, he guessed, before the Kyuubi was restored enough to do more than sleep.

It was an odd feeling to be so depleted. Until now, it was always a feeling he had associated with hunger, but he knew intellectually that he no longer needed to eat. His body energy restored itself through interactions with electricity in the environment, according to popular theory in the clan. His mind should restore itself through rest like always, but several clan members had speculated on ways to use his new form to get around the need for rest or sleep. Certainly his body no longer needed rest. It would take some experimentation before he could see if he could extend that to his mind.

Right now he had to start dealing with his body, which was little more than a metal puddle. His chakra was still finding new paths through his body, and would continue to do so for some time. It was hard to find the right paths in such a fluid medium. In his old body, moving the Silver was an act of will, combined with the natural movements of his chakra in response to that will. He expected to have trouble moving until his chakra settled, but felt he might just manage something small, if it was familiar enough.

He concentrated...

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From outside, it had simply appeared as though the Silver had swallowed the blonde, followed by some pyrotechnics and then nothing.

Now the pool rippled again, moving under no external influence. A small portion of the Silver bulged up, vibrating softly before sinking again.

It repeated this several times, staying longer each time, until it rose up and, at the peak of its motion shuddered and turned into a simple ring of metal, small enough to fit easily in someone's ear.

It stayed, humming slightly on the surface of the Silver, and then it sank.


End file.
